K.Mandla's blog of Linux experiences

Like tears in the rain

Ten years ago, I bought myself a toy — a sparkly new Dell XPS M170, a machine so overburdened with glitter that it glowed. Literally: It was bedecked with LEDs that shifted colors and pulsed with the music, if I so desired. Such jealousy it inspired.

Ironically, I bought it because I needed the power to run Windows XP — an amusing thought in this day and age. The old K6-2 I had lived on for four years was struggling with this new and weighty operating system, and I reacted in the same way most Windows users still do — I bit the bullet and bought a new machine.

A few months later I transferred it to a new owner, not because it was a problem or a nuisance, but because by that point I had discovered Linux. I didn’t need a high-end laptop to do the things I wanted, because with Linux I suddenly had access to older, cheaper hardware again. I was free from the power curve imposed by proprietary operating systems, and the same old K6-2 I had used for years was usable again.

And now a decade has passed. The arc of my Linux experiences moved from exploration to familiarity, from familiarity to ordinary, and the ordinary to the mundane. Over time I realized installing Ubuntu on a K6-2 wasn’t a great idea, but there were other machines and other versions that were better suited. Over time I resurrected quite a few Pentium-era machines with a sparse kernel and a careful choice of software. And in the process, I learned quite a lot.

But 10 years of documenting Linux adventures is more than enough. Thoreau left the Concord woods because he felt he had other lives to live, and I can sympathize. At this point, I feel I’ve spun out the thread as far as it will go, and it’s time to seek a new adventure. I don’t spend enough time picking through the guts of 18-year-old laptops, and spend too much time chasing down obscure home pages for esoteric software … and that’s not what I’d like to be doing.

In retrospect I wish I had been more successful in keeping this old blog up-to-date, because this is where the story began, and where it ought to have remained. I know there was a year-long quiet spell, when I was still experimenting but wasn’t publishing, so it could be said that I’ve had my obligatory sabbatical.

Truth be told though, the “new” site — which is quickly approaching it’s 30th month and its own form of immortality — just absorbed too much time. I said a long time ago I wasn’t interested in doing an app-a-day blog because it was gimmicky, but I did it anyway at the prodding of some long-time readers and because I had gifted myself a list of 400+ applications that needed pursuit.

That list burgeoned into more than 1000, then closer to 2000, and since then has taken on a life of its own. But it won’t ever end, and that’s the unfortunate (fortunate?) truth. There will always be another console program out there, hiding in the recesses of Github or ibiblio, and who knows? Maybe it’s the killer app for the console, and we just haven’t seen it out in the light of day yet.

But more than that, my adventures with ancient hardware and minimalist software hit their apex about three years ago, when I put a 150Mhz Pentium to work on a daily basis with Crux. Sadly, I haven’t really seen success of that caliber since. All those moments lost in time, like tears in the rain.

It’s the inexorable march of time, Fitzgerald’s sensation of being drawn back ceaselessly into the past. The machines get older and rarer, and the cutting-edge hardware slips into the gray state of obsoleteness. I keep one dual-core machine that I mostly use for cross-compiling, transcoding or other processor-heavy tasks, and the remainder all hail from late in the 686 generation.

That will always be the golden era of computing for me. I know there are folks who can reach back to the Pentium generation and call that their glory days. But for me, the advent of the Pentium 4 meant an entire crop of compatible hardware that was being discarded while still quite useful.

I can sense the next great sea change though. The newest generation will bear the brunt of sloppy programming and grotesque dependencies as we move into the high-speed, high-bandwidth days of cloud computing and mobile handheld devices. There’s no need to code like a girl when gigabit connections can send garbage code over a line in a fragment of a second.

I’ve felt that dragging sensation for the better part of a year now, and I don’t like the direction it’s pulling me. Even this 12-year-old laptop is struggling to keep apace with the monstrosity WordPress.com calls its admin pages, a monstrosity that is obviously shifting more and more toward smartphone users — fat buttons, scrolling lists with no scrollbars, enormous icons and complex overlapping page displays. I started this hobby when it was still a task intended for a computer, and not something you did to post pictures of yourself for your friends to vote up or down while binge-watching reruns of Friends.

And so the smartphone generation reaches the age of majority, and there are hints and whispers that the classic PC is descending from its apogee. Even the traditional laptop model is straining to stay relevant at a time when tablets and pad-type computers are all the rage. And so long as it’s not the latest and greatest Apple gimmick, it’s disgustingly cheap.

A 2-year-old dual core machine with an impressive graphics card and a 64-bit pedigree is cheaper than a department store ultralight, and does more with Linux. Machines that were new and fancy a half-decade ago are castoffs now, and that means the past is receding more quickly than I realize. Soon even my beloved Pentium 4 machines — the computers I drooled over in department store windows before heading home to my rinky-dink homemade 450Mhz Pentium II and lowly Voodoo3 card — will be impossible to find.

So it’s time to call it quits. At the end of the month, I’ll lock up the shop, and I’m content with that. I would prefer the K.Mandla brand name be bounded by the rise of the Pentium 4 on one end, and the dominion of mobile computing on the other. It’s a worthy generation to represent.

I’m also abandoning the moniker, the K.Mandla title that has served so well for the past decade. It was an offhand choice and unique enough to establish an “impress” of sorts, and that makes me a little proud. People still refer to this blog as a source of information and to the new one as a source of software, and the traffic between them both still reaches about 2000 visitors a day, on average days. Not bad for honest, non-clickbait, home-grown content.

In any case, if you see someone post as “K.Mandla” any time in the future, it’s not me. The name ends here, and I can invent something new and clever for future adventures.

I don’t plan to stop using Linux — ever. So long as I can reach kernel.org, and I’m not forced by some job or some regulation to use a lesser operating system, I’ll be spending my digital days with some version of *nix. I just won’t be sounding this barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. 😉

And if this is your first visit to this site or its sister … you missed a great party!

Thanks for reading this far. さようなら, tsamaya ka khotso, and cheers. Be kind to one another. We’re all we’ve got. …

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19 thoughts on “Like tears in the rain”

Hey, as I would say in French, may you have the best winds for you future endeavors 🙂
I owe you much, and I really appreciated your unique way of writing. Hope I’ll recognize it in another life, maybe 🙂

Hopefully you'll leave both sites online in full?
I've been reading thru RSS feeds, but at times couldn't keep up even via them, so still going to explore the pages in depth a bit later – and as you mentioned the visitor counts, looks like I ain't the only one 🙂
These are really awesome pages.

I will definitely miss receiving shiny new K.Mandla posts, but not everything needs to be new to be great, now does it? I wish you success in your future endeavors, whatever they may be. Thank you so much for giving us years of entertaining, informative, and high-quality writing.

It’s been fun following your adventures with old systems. As a long time (1992 onwards) Linux user, I’ve enjoyed seeing this system put to such good use. All the best for your future endeavours (and I do follow your inconsolation blog as well…).

I really like this text and the emotion of it. I’ve changed my blog, deleted the old one with close to thousand entries after ten years (just a simple one with daily live and life stuff as diary) – cause time is changing and I feel, that the old gold (computer-) era is lost. So I step over the gap – leave the old behind me, but not because I want to forget the stuff – I close everything to archive the stuff in my personal mind. A time and feeling of many years, that nobody other can understand or feel. It’s a kind of personal part and lifetime (-secret), that is now archived – and I know where it is in my backups and that it’s safe.
Now I restart with a fresh, naked new blog and name, because I still need to write and typing stuff in my personal space (forevery, that’s me, also using Linux until it isn’t there anymore) – but this feeling of “wuuhaaa, great new digital adventures” is still lost.
Maybe I’m now one of the “old” people, saying “You’ve no idea, the old days… they were great, good and better.”. New time and generation has also great, fascinating stuff, but with another flow 🙂
*sorry, poor english*

Well, it’ll be sad to see you go. Again.
I really enjoyed reading your adventures in Linux, and battles with hardware and software drivers. I also have enjoyed reading your opinions over time, and stances against the trend of bloatware.

But I also understand your point of view, and it may be best to leave K.Mandla in the past with his desire to maximise his use out of the what people said “useless”.

I used to have the same drive, but now… I just want to use what is available instead of fighting the ever growing tide of bloat. I want things to “Just Work”

Even the Linux kernal is shifting in the direction of new and cutting edge, and perfectly good, but old obsolete hardware is being given the shove out of the back door.

It’s not fair, but it is the way of the times.

If you do start a new blog in the future though, I’d like to know about it. 🙂

You seemed excited about the future, when earlier i3 cores are going to be the castoffs. And then you’ll also be able to buy them like those vista-era machines “in perfect condition for less than $50, and received outstanding performance at the cost of no more effort than clicking a few buttons in Linux Mint”

[drama mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiZNSzWIaLo%5D
You were the chosen one!
It was said that you would do your part to convince people to use old computers, not join the buyers of the latest gizmos!
Bring speed improvements with compile optimizations, not leave it in just hardware upgrades!
[/drama mode]
lol, just kidding 😛

But is a shame to see this blog ending.
Anyway, good luck with whatever path you choose to follow now. (will you let us know about your new blog/nickname?)

I will sorely miss your writings. Your writing style is unique, recognizable from kilometers away. It is of an incredible kindness to share your years of adventurous nitpicking (either here, more verbosely, or in the ever-valuable *inconsolation*). This is how you show true passion and a very agreeable character: always pragmatic, but never resorting to pedantism (which is a rare trait of personality these days); writing about many technical things with your oddly captivating poetic sense is the signature of this very authoritative and comprehensive work you have achieved here. K.Mandla will always be my benchmark for competent yet passionate computing and writing.